The present invention relates in general to instructions for jump-starting a battery and more particularly to a system and method of safely and effectively jump-starting a battery with jumper cables having instructional labels placed thereon.
There are a significant number of steps required to be performed, preferably in a particular order, to effectively and safely jump-start a battery, such as for example, a battery for a car, boat or other recreational vehicle. These steps can be easily forgotten over time, forgotten in an emergency situation, or perhaps not sufficiently learned and retained in the first place. Moreover, the steps for performing the jump-starting of a battery are not necessarily intuitive or easy to understand for the average person. In fact, the steps can be deceptively misleading as to how they are to be properly applied, unless express instructions are followed.
Moreover, most everyone has had the need to jump-start a dead or weakened car battery from time to time, and unfortunately, jump-starting a car battery can be a very dangerous proposition. Explosions resulting from following improper procedures upon jump-starting car and other batteries have occurred involving destruction of property, including serious damage, as for example by shorting, to a car's electrical, electronic, and computer systems, acid bums, the loss of a limb, loss of sight, disfigurement, and other injuries possibly resulting even in death. Such explosions occur most frequently upon attaching the second black-handled cable clamp to the negative post of the dead battery, instead of the safe and recommended procedure of attaching it to the frame of the car or engine away from the dead battery. Attachment of the black clamp to the negative post of the dead battery can spark battery gases causing an explosion. Moreover, if the cables are crossed upon attachment (e.g., one red clamp designed for attachment to a positive terminal is attached to the positive terminal of a dead battery, and the other red clamp designed for attachment to a positive terminal is attached to the negative terminal of a good battery) then serious electrical system damage can result to the vehicles in which the batteries reside. With the advent of modem computer technology and other sensitive electronics, this electrical system damage can be very expensive to correct. Indeed, the electrical system for that particular car may never be the same, fully functional, again.
Typically, the need to jump-start one's battery occurs away from home or office, where one might normally be expected to keep safety instructions on hand. Or perhaps the person performing the jump-start does not even appreciate the need for precaution or safety instructions to jump-start a battery. Perhaps safety instructions were obtained at an earlier time and have since been forgotten. Whatever the case may be, it is a well known fact that many attempt to jump-start their automobile batteries, or other types of batteries, without first consulting safety instructions, and for this reason, a significant number of faulty starts, damaged property, and injuries have resulted.
While sometimes jumper cables come with colored handles, there has not been included integrally with jumper cables, or made available for later attachment to jumper cables, an integrated safety system of instruction on how to use the jumper cables. Also, sometimes a pair of jumper cables are not attached in such a way as to ensure that each red handle is near a black handle. This has the unfortunate result of making more possible, or likely, the incorrect attachment of the jumper cables to their appropriate locations in the confusion that often attends jump-starting a battery.